The Green Party have pledged their support to help local residents and business owners solve the problem of Dún Laoghaire’s vacant shop units following a successful public meeting in the Kingston Hotel last night (6 July 2010).

Over 180 residents and business owners attended the meeting held by Green Party TD for Dún Laoghaire Ciarán Cuffe and were shown presentations on how the town can be improved through planning, heritage, the arts, and supporting local businesses.

In addition, over 90 residents, visitors and business owners gave their thoughts on the future of Dún Laoghaire town in an online and door-to-door survey.

Green Party TD for Dún Laoghaire Ciarán Cuffe said:

“I’m delighted with the great turnout for our meeting on the future of Dún Laoghaire. It goes to show how much the town means to those who live and work here and demonstrates a huge commitment to making it better.

“As many of the speakers touched on, Dún Laoghaire is a fantastic town with beautiful natural amenities and a rich heritage. But there are things we can do to improve the town. Some of the suggestions that arose at the meeting include a ‘greening’ of the town through tree planting, a review of current parking arrangements, promoting small businesses, protecting our open spaces and developing a strong identity for the town that is unique and separate to other parts of Dublin.

“We need to rethink how we deal with traffic movement in the town so as to encourage shopping. We want the Harbour Company to stop using the waterfront as a cash cow for parking charges and put back the historic Carlisle Pier railway station that was illegally demolished. People want their voices to be heard.

“One of the key challenges identified at the meeting is the number of vacant units in the town, which according to our survey is one fifth of all shops. Urgent action must be taken to support existing retailers and to encourage new businesses to set up here.

“The next step is to take these recommendations from local residents and business owners to the County Council and other key players. We must all work together to revitalise our town.”